How to delete a folder and all contents using a bat file in windows?

Question

I want to delete a folder with all files and subfolders using a bat file.

I have tried the following, but it is not working:

@DEL D:\PHP_Projects\testproject\Release\testfolder*.*

Can anybody help?

score 349 · Accepted Answer · edited Feb 14 '18 at 17:53

349

@RD /S /Q "D:\PHP_Projects\testproject\Release\testfolder"

Explanation:

Removes (deletes) a directory.

RMDIR [/S] [/Q] [drive:]path RD [/S] [/Q] [drive:]path

/S      Removes all directories and files in the specified directory
        in addition to the directory itself.  Used to remove a directory
        tree.

/Q      Quiet mode, do not ask if ok to remove a directory tree with /S

edited Feb 14 '18 at 17:53

Cristian Ciupitu

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answered Sep 07 '11 at 08:46

Jon

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Can you please explain, why the @ flag befor RD ist needed and used? In the explanation there is only with rd. – Hakikat41 Oct 22 '20 at 08:40
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@Hakikat41 it's the symbol for [reducing verbosity in batch files](https://stackoverflow.com/q/21074863/50079). It doesn't affect the operation of the command itself, and doesn't do anything outside of batch files. Looking at the question, I imagine I put it there because the question itself has the `DEL` command with it included. – Jon Oct 22 '20 at 09:02

score 58 · Answer 2 · edited Dec 16 '16 at 09:38

58

del /s /q c:\where ever the file is\*
rmdir /s /q c:\where ever the file is\
mkdir c:\where ever the file is\

edited Dec 16 '16 at 09:38

mtb

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answered Feb 17 '14 at 15:58

user3319853

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to delete all subfolders in a folder, use `*` in `for` : `for /d %G in ("D:\testfolder\*") do rd /s /q "%~G" ` – yu yang Jian Dec 27 '21 at 04:22

How to delete a folder and all contents using a bat file in windows?

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